Q: How has the comic changed over 30 years?A: Ummm... is that a trick question?

The art has evolved a bit with Garfield spending more time on his hind legs and doubling the size of his feet. But the jokes and themes are practically interchangeable. It's impressive how stagnant consistent it's been over three decades.

After the end theme, we read the latest Allegheny Teen Center announcement from Hank 300(who wasn't able to record this episode with us due to a catastrophic Super Bowl related internet crisis).

We talk about Myth of Eustro, a fantastic digital comic by Solomon Mars. It's a panel-to-panel fantasy story set in the world of Ephon, a land overtaken by a crystal wasteland called the Nightmare Forest.

The main character is Romona, an Arkseologist who's working to fight back the expansion of the crystals while seeking to eradicate them completely.

For years, Solomon Mars has created panel-to-panel comics that he shares online as Flash files. But he's really stepped up the interactivity with Myth of Eustro, layering information about the story of Romona and the world of Ephon into roll-overs and clickable icons.

The direction of Myth of Eustro is also decided by the fans. At the end of each chapter, Solomon asks readers to choose between two actions for Romona. Once the votes are in, Solomon crafts a new chapter that takes Romona and her Famylyr named Ephyx on another adventure.

Since this episode was recorded a couple of weeks early, we've got a special update after the end theme... a conversation between Nick and Hank 300 recorded on location in Walla Walla, WA!

Good news? Hank and Cecily are still alive. Bad news? Cecily is brainwashed and Hank is trapped the bottom of a grain mill that's slowly being filled with flour.

Next Episode:
If Nick, Hank, and Cecily make it out alive, then we'll have a new podcast for you on Tue Jan 7 wherein we'll discuss Battle Angel Alita v5 chapters 1-3.

How do you win? Leave us a comment about your most embarrassing skateboarding experience! (If you don't have a skating story, then tell us your most embarrassing high school story. Basically, Ross wants to embarrass you.) Deadline is Monday, December 23rd. We'll announce the winner on Christmas 2013!!!

We also review a comic book review (meta!) by our buddy Kelly Thompson, who writes eloquently about a book we've never heard of called Marvel Knights: X-Men #2. And after the end theme, Justique talks about the time Nick tried to get her to enter a wet t-shirt contest.

Next Episode:
We really wanna review Iron Man 3 and give away a bunch of Iron Man comics, but the movie's so damn expensive. So uhhhhh we'll talk about something else.

Show Notes:
Ross talks about his fascinating aborted comics and rejected pitches!

In loose chronological order, Ross details his cornucopia of defunct projects. At the beginning of his career, he passed on drawing Local for Brian Wood. His pitch for a giant monster story called Shibbahyip was rejected by Tokyopop, and so was his original pitch to Oni for Wet Moon.

Ross relives the development hell of Dead Tired, a pitch he worked on with Vertigo at DC Comics for years until he couldn't recognize the story any more. He also talks about his Vertigo pitch for Swamp Things (yes, "Things"), which was rejected in favor of a China Miéville Swamp Thing comic book that never happened.

Ross has had numerous misses with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, starting years ago at Mirage Studios up through last year when he was offered an opportunity to draw the main series at IDW. Luckily, Ross was able to get the TMNT thing to finally happen and his four issue IDW Turtles story begins next month!